Wimbledon 2022

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Serena Williams has been granted a wildcard and will play

Now I think of it (I´m a bit late) it might have made sense for all the banned players from Russia/Belarus to have been allowed to keep their 2021 points until Wimbledon 2023. Surely a more elegant and fairer situation than having no points awarded.

It has been commented upon that Serena Williams was looking on the large side and perhaps not particularly match fit nor sharp. Harmony Tan ranked #115, who only got into the main draw because of the large number of Russian & Bellarussian players in the top 100 who were all banned from competing at Wimbledon and whose previous best at Wimbledon was reaching the second round of qualifying, apparently employed the tactic of getting Williams to move around the court.

No name Bertie wrote:It has been commented upon that Serena Williams was looking on the large side and perhaps not particularly match fit nor sharp.  Harmony Tan ranked #115, who only got into the main draw because of the large number of Russian & Bellarussian players in the top 100 who were all banned from competing at Wimbledon and whose previous best at Wimbledon was reaching the second round of qualifying, apparently employed the tactic of getting Williams to move around the court.

How strange. BBC reported it as:

“Williams answered questions over her fitness with a dynamic display that put her two points from a win before Tan edged it.”

I think Serena would have been happier facing a big hitter rather than the slice-dice-dropshot opponent she encountered.

However, the old Serena would have made mincemeat of Tan. We did see the odd glimpse of the big-hitting Williams but mostly the old power had gone.

In a 3hr-plus match she only hit five aces. Highly unlikely the earlier versions of Serena would have failed to serve it out at 5-4 in the third set, nor lost from 4-0 up in the tiebreak.

But hey, she's a 40-yr-old mother who hadn't played for a year and she managed to enthrall a late-night CC crowd.

BBC will be licking their lips over another late-night schedule-wrecking Murray match today. Cameron Norrie has to live in the shadow of the the Emma/Andy show.

First up on CC is Djoko-Kokkinakis. The Aussie should be able to give Novak a good game before....losing.

Wonder whether Pen1ston can go any further. He faces Steve Johnson who has been ranked as high as 21.

Of course she is not fit enough, she hasnt played an official match in one complete year and she is 40 years old.

Very brave of her to try to come back. She will have to experience some more bad loses in order to get back on top level. but, is her actual potential top level enough for more titles?, I dont know.

sirfredperry wrote:I think Serena would have been happier facing a big hitter rather than the slice-dice-dropshot opponent she encountered.

However, the old Serena would have made mincemeat of Tan. We did see the odd glimpse of the big-hitting Williams but mostly the old power had gone.

In a 3hr-plus match she only hit five aces. Highly unlikely the earlier versions of Serena would have failed to serve it out at 5-4 in the third set, nor lost from 4-0 up in the tiebreak.

But hey, she's a 40-yr-old mother who hadn't played for a year and she managed to enthrall a late-night CC crowd.

BBC will be licking their lips over another late-night schedule-wrecking Murray match today. Cameron Norrie has to live in the shadow of the the Emma/Andy show.

First up on CC is Djoko-Kokkinakis. The Aussie should be able to give Novak a good game before....losing.

Wonder whether Pen1ston can go any further. He faces Steve Johnson who has been ranked as high as 21.

Sorry hadnt read your post and you already said what I wanted to say... and more

OF what I saw of the Williams v Tan match, I agree that Serena didn't look match fit and sharp, and that the French woman's tactics of moving her round the court and giving her lots of low balls to deal with was exactly right. I agree that Serena would probably have coped better with someone giving her pace to hit back from 'easy' positions at the back of the court.

Anyway, on to round 2 today (mostly) - interesting test for Murray against Isner, who his H2H is excellent (8-0 to Murray) but obviousy all of those matches were before the hip issues. If Andy has aspirations to be a serious contender again (at least for minor titles and a top 20 ranking), he needs to be winning this sort of match.

Not entirely surprised by Cressy beating FAA - good recent form on grass and at a career high in the 40s in the rankings is not the sort of player you want to draw first up.

3rd seed Casper Ruud crashes out (players always crash out, don't they) to Ugo Humbert.

Ruud played clay-court tennis, taking up positions miles behind the baseline while the Frenchman looked very comfortable on the grass having cut out the errors that marred his first-set display.

On this form, Humbert could go deep, although he faces a tough match against Goffin next.

Djokovic throughly outclassed Kokkinakis 6-1 6-4 6-2. Djokovic considerably better than R1. Kokkinakis with too many weaknesses to pose any issues to someone like Djokovic. In particular the Australian’s movement is very poor.

Good one for Djokovic, indeed better than R1, but the australian was really dissapointing

Cameron Norrie took the first set v Munar but some inspired play by the Spaniard saw him level the match.

You feel Norrie doesn't really have a big enough game to trouble people on grass, or to trouble the really top players anywhere.

He has been remarkably consistent over the last 18 months but IMHO he's a bit over-ranked.

Emma R is 5-2 down to Caroline Garcia who arrives fresh from a grass-court triumph in Germany.

Caroline Garcia beats Emma Raducanu 6-3 6-3. The Frenchwoman was simply too good for the Brit.

I think the expectations on Raducanu really need to be reigned in. At best she’s a top 50 player.

Garcia, in form and a former number four, was a tough draw. Emma's aim for the rest of the season should be limited to two things she's been unable to do so far in 2022 - stay fit and compete regularly.

Jeff Navarro wrote:Caroline Garcia beats Emma Raducanu 6-3 6-3. The Frenchwoman was simply too good for the Brit.

I think the expectations on Raducanu really need to be reigned in. At best she’s a top 50 player.

For me she has to beef herself up and be able to compete with power hitters more. She was like a pop gun against a tank (Garcia) today. And she never found a way to try to counteract Garcia's power or negate it. Norrie through in five sets and Murray a set down to Isner and yet to really fire. Going with serve in the second set.

I admire the determination and hard work of Andy Murray on his ongoing comeback but there's something v dispiriting watching him struggle against a player like Isner who he has hitherto owned in his career (think he had a 8-0 head-to-head before) - in Murray's prime he used to eat big servers for breakfast.

On a more positive note, it's thrilling to see Alcaraz thrive on the grass so far.  I unfortunately haven't seen as much of the Spanish teenager's exploits prior to Wimbledon as I'd have liked but I'm v impressed with the tactical nous he is showing so far - playing the dropshots and approaching the net at exactly the right times on the big points.

It's still early in his career to go all the way but based on what I've seen he looks good for the 4th round/quarters this year.

Finally, credit to Norrie - that was a good win to come through in 5 sets against Munar.

Isner is proving to much for Murray here.
Looking like a straight sets win for Isner, unless Murray can turn it round asap.

Would love to see Isner go all the way.

MrInvisible wrote:I admire the determination and hard work of Andy Murray on his ongoing comeback but there's something v dispiriting watching him struggle against a player like Isner who he has hitherto owned in his career (think he had a 8-0 head-to-head before) - in Murray's prime he used to eat big servers for breakfast.

True. I'd put it down to Andy's movement not being as good now as in his heyday and speed around court. Also he needed to serve well today and hasn't. Isner is no mug on grass but still Murray has an unbeaten record which is going to go today. What now for Andy? We shall see.

what a way to lose the match for Fokina

Just have to love Andy's heart and desire if nothing else and his ability to whip Centre Court into a frenzy. He takes the third set on a tie-break. Still a long way back from here though.

Andy finally cottons on to the secret of beating Isner - hold your serve and win the tiebreaks.

Can he come back now?

That was a game lost by Murray that he was coasting in. He was 30-love up and telegraphed a drop shot which Isner picked up and hit down the line and ended up taking the game. All Big John has to do now his hold his serve three more times and he wins in four sets.

John Isner beats Andy Murray 6-4 7-6 6-7 6-4. Isner was the better player throughout the match and obtained the only breaks of serve.

I think Andy Murray not capable of returning to the top 20 anymore. His passion and will to win is still there but the body is finished. Does someone who’s a former #1 and triple major winner really want to play on as 30-40 ranked player? It’s ultimately up to Murray but I feel unfortunately Murray’s race is run.

That was a frightening serving display from John Isner. In fairness to Murray, what was he to do in that situation. Isner was firing serves so hard and accurate, 36 aces. What is most impressive is not just the power but every serve either into the corner or right down the T. What do you do against that??? For somebody who returns as well as Murray to only get two break points in the entire match and get no breaks of serve tells you everything about how well Isner played. Even that penultimate service game where he was 0-30 down and the pressure was on, he hits 4 canon serves. Must be so demoralising playing against that.

Really disappointed for Murray, thought he had a good chance of making a mark on this tournament, but he runs into Isner having an exceptional serving day, even for his standards. Some of his other play was surprisingly.good too. The 2 service games Andy lost were very poor, but the fact John didn't concede a single break himself was amazing. Only the 3rd GS match that Andy has played where he was unable to break even once.

You need to play well in tight situations against big servers, and perhaps Andy wasn't quite match-tough enough to do that.

Sad for Murray, I wanted him to adavance. He is a nice guy and a great champion

It is easy to forget that John Isner is two years older than Andy Murray and at 37 is still a potent force to be reckoned with on his day.  

As regards Andy Murray I personally am neither disappointed nor sad for him but in fact happy for him - that he is able to still perform at a very high level in professional tennis in front of a large audience including his children despite many people believing he was completely finished when he had that hip operation.  

As long as one resets ones expectations so that they are realistic then one can still sit down to watch a competitive match that involves Andy Murray just for the intrinsic entertainment value of watching and maybe supporting a tennis match.  

ps: I know that when one is a supporter of a given player then it is natural to feel disappointed or sad when that player loses but for Andy Murray I think nowadays it is more the competing rather than the winning where the satisfaction arises.

I agree that expectations need to be lowered with what Andy has been through, and I have been doing that for the past few years.

However, my hopes were raised when I saw how well he's played recently, really showing his class in beating players such as Tsitsipas and Kyrgios, and giving Berrettini the toughest fight anyone has given him this grass season in the final of Stuttgart. I just feel that if he drew any other seed around Isner's ranking then there's a good chance he'd still be in the tournament and I'd have really fancied him to beat Sinner in the 3rd round as he's not a good grass player at this stage.

If he wants to keep at it then he should make it a priority to get a better ranking for next year's Wimbledon, though he'll need to be careful not to play too many matches. Also, there is a larger pool of players who have the ability to beat him on hardcourts, where the younger players are much more comfortable.

I am not sure what are the expectations of Andy Murray himself. He is reportedly disappointed but determined to get his ranking higher so that in future he is seeded for Wimbledon. He mentioned prior to this match against Isner that although he had an 8-0 head to head over him he had never played him on the grass. It should also be added that Murray had last played Isner in 2016. Looking at Isner's slam record it is relatively poor (14x 1R exits; 9x 2R exits; 20x 3R exits; 7x 4R exit; 2x QF exit; 1x SF exit) however we know that Isner on his day can be unbreakable. It just seems that in this tournament this Murray ran up against an Isner when Isner was in the zone and when fit and strong enough to maintain that lethal serving.

Isner serving that well would trouble anyone, as he gives so few opportunities during his service games - 2 break point opportunities and I think Andy got to 15-30 or 0-30 on his serve no more than 3 or 4 times. However, Andy will probably be a bit disappointed with his own performance - the first serve isn't as potent as it once was (topping out about 125 mph now, used to regularly top 130), and he hasn't increased 1st serve percentage to compensate, and the game he was broken in the 4th set had two of the worst UEs I've ever seen from Murray. By contrast, there was a game, iirc in the 2nd set, where Andy got to 15-30 and made two decent low returns both of which Isner made half volley drop shot winners - sometimes you just have to accept the opponent is on a good day is is going to be very tough to beat.

As for Andy's general level, obviously while he still moves well, he's not exceptional in that any more, and as I noted above I think the first serve is down a bit from his best. Top 10 appears a long way away, but top 20-25 may be viable if he can stay fit for long enough- got to remember as well that he's missed the last 2-3 weeks with a side strain, so his build-up hasn't been perfect.

From what I have seen of the next generation of Brits I think Jack Draper has the best chance of success. Seems to have a good all-round game and moves well with good court speed. Today he plays De Mineaur and it will be interesting to see how he copes.

Roberto Bautista-Agut is out with covid19

Tremendous from Broady. Lost the third set to love, but came back to win a close tie-break in the fourth and crushed his opponent 6-1 in the decider. Great heart.

Iga Swiatek wins 37th consecutive match as she eventually prevails 6-4 4-6 6-3 over Lesley Kerkhove. It was hard work at times for Iga.

After Boulter upset Pliskova for the second week running, a good fightback from Broady, although Schwartzman at the end seemed strangely flat and lethargic.

Rafa has taken the first set against Berankis but is a break down early in the second.

An amazing win for Kyrgios today featuring 50 winners. He now takes on Tsitsipas

Jeff Navarro wrote:Iga Swiatek wins 37th consecutive match as she eventually prevails 6-4 4-6 6-3 over Lesley Kerkhove. It was hard work at times for Iga.

Didn't see any of it but seemingly Iga was nowhere near her best. Bad news for the rest of the draw in that she may well have got her bad performances out of the way early on but is still in the tournament. Next up for her is Alicia Cornet which will be another test.

Rafa has been taken to a 4th set after some lovely play by Berankis but Nadal is a break up in the 4th.

Nadal not looking good in these two matches

Rafael Nadal beats Ričardas Berankis 6-4 6-4 4-6 6-3. It was a magnificent effort by Berankis and he had Nadal is trouble at various points of the match.
Nadal’s back hand slice isn’t good enough at this point to win Wimbledon imo.

Brandon Nakashima beats Denis Shapovalov 6-2 4-6 6-1 7-6

Saw some of the Rafa match. Feel he will have to step it up a bit if he wants to go deep into the second week.

Having said that, I see that those left in the bottom half of the draw should not worry Nadal too much, especially if Kyrgios can knock out Tsitsipas.

Jack Draper took the first set against De Minaur but the Aussie levelled in the second which went to a tiebreak (7-0) and then broke Draper at the beginning of the third.

Jeff Navarro wrote:Rafael Nadal beats Ričardas Berankis 6-4 6-4 4-6 6-3. It was a magnificent effort by Berankis and he had Nadal is trouble at various points of the match.
Nadal’s back hand slice isn’t good enough at this point to win Wimbledon imo.

Yeah, Nadal is not at the level required to win or even compete for the final. I hope he raises his game in the next match.
its obvious that 3 years without playing on grass is too much. His movement is clumsy and he is way too conservative and still erratic with his shots.

yesterday´s 4th set was a good sign of improvement though.

seeing his actual form, he has been really lucky with his first 2 rounds.

Heather Watson, renowned for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, has reached the 4th round of a GS for the first time.

Ons Jabeur thru in straight sets but not before her young French opponent displayed an attractive one-handed BH.

Jabeur looks a good bet to go all the way.

Among the winners today were Jack Sock, who had to qualify, and Tiafoe.

Good solid win for Heather Watson, won the first on tie breaker. Raced to a 5-0 lead in the second before prevailing 6-2, the latter part of the second set was more of a battle than the score line suggests.

Oakdene wrote:Good solid win for Heather Watson, won the first on tie breaker. Raced to a 5-0 lead in the second before prevailing 6-2, the latter part of the second set was more of a battle than the score line suggests.

Happy for Watson. Have so often seen her fall apart under the pressure of trying to close out a match when she was seemingly on top. Always felt she hasn't really done her ability full justice because of that regular tendency to choke...(I hate that term , but it does seem to apply). Bit of a late twitch even today , apparently ; but she got the job done in the end .

Fourth round for the first time at a major and even - whisper it - a potentially winnable next round ?

Can't think of anyone who has lost so many matches when close to victory than Watson.

How ironic than when she could really do with the points to get her up the rankings there are none on offer.

Isner is by far from my favourite player and how intensely annoying it is to find him, so far, serving at only 48% (of first serves in) against Sinner. The full-match mark against Andy was 73%!

Consequently Big John has lost the first set against Sinner. The names for this one, Isner v Sinner, are not quite anagramatical. Can anyone think of a match when the name of one player fitted into the other? Did Andre Sa ever play Sampras, for example?

Sinner showing how to beat Isner - don't drop your serve and win the tiebreaks. He's two sets to love up.

Alcaraz was impressive today

Sinner saw off Isner in straight sets, with the big American not creating a single BP.

Next up for the Italian is an intriguing match of the young guns, against Alcaraz.

Norrie thru to the 4th round of a slam for the first time after a straight-sets victory over Steve Johnson.

Waiting for Cameron is Tommy Paul.

Down to earth for Katie Boulter today as she is totally outplayed in the first set by Serena's conqueror Harmony Tan. 6-1 the score.

Missed all the action from yesterday but I’m really looking forward to Jannik vs Carlitos. This could really be the next big rivalry - throw in FAA as well.

Anyway Harmony Tan destroys Katie Boulter 6-1 6-1. The Frenchwoman has a great game to watch.